Toronto, Ontario. Speaking at a roundtable discussion organized by Canada India Foundation (CIF), representatives of the Liberal Party of Canada emphasized the need for a comprehensive relationship beyond trade with India, to include immigration, tourism, education and research, as part of its Global Network Engagement strategy.
Ramesh Chotai, Chair of CIF, welcomed Bob Rae, John McCallum, Maria Minna, Rob Oliphant and Rana Sarkar, representing the Liberal Party of Canada, and noted that the roundtable followed a similar event held earlier with the Conservative Party of Canada, in keeping with CIF’s mandate as a not-for-profit, non-partisan public policy organization with the objective of promoting strong Canada and India relations.
In addition to the Board of Governors of CIF, other participants in the roundtable included representatives of Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce, Ontario Chamber of Commerce, IIT Alumni of Canada and Canadian Museum of Hindu Civilization, members of the ethnic media as well as other experts in the Canada India corridor.
Mr. Bob Rae referred to the Canadian reaction over the years to the Air India tragedy as an example of the “maturing” of the Canadian thought process with respect to its population of Indian origin and recognition of this Canadian tragedy. Previous Liberal governments had realized the importance of moving from the G8 to the G20 group of nations, reflecting the importance of India and other emerging powers, he said, adding that Canada should resurrect the Team Canada concept of delegations to India, with a strong Indian diaspora component.
Mr. McCallum said that Australia was “eating Canada’s lunch” in attracting Indian students and the federal government must act in conjunction with the provinces for friendlier policies on visa and work. On the economic front, he credited earlier liberal government policies against bank deregulation and bank merger, as legacy for the current Canadian relative stability compared to the developed nations. He favored holding the corporate tax rate at 18%, which would result in savings of $6 billion to the tax payer, to be used to help pay off debt and for other social programs. He also promised the creation of flow-through shares tax model for start-up businesses, as a way of promoting entrepreneurship as well as Employment Insurance premium holidays to companies as a means to reduce youth unemployment.
Ms. Minna emphasized the need for serious engagement of Indian diaspora for deepening of Canada India relations. Mr. Oliphant reminded the participants that during his days in the provincial government nearly 20 years ago, he had identified Gujarat as a great opportunity, something being recognized only recently by the federal government. He suggested a full consular service in Gujarat. He complimented CIF for being assertive and, despite being just 4 years old, to succeed in getting India on the agenda for Canada and credited it with the push for growth of the bi-lateral trade between the two countries. Newly nominated to run for the Parliament, Rana Sarkar said that based on past history, Liberal Party has the DNA for dealing with India and now there is need for India 2.0 engagement strategy.
Responding to questions from participants, Mr. Oliphant promised that the Liberal party would reduce wait times for the Family Class immigration from the current figures of 11-13 years to 5-6 years. He also mentioned Liberal party in future would take a step back and then decide on how it addresses issues like visit of Minister Kamal Nath and Genocide petition. Mr. McCallum envisaged an entrepreneurial-minded Immigration minister who would put greater focus on education and research and attract students as the way to make Canada more innovative. Mr. Rae said that healthcare could be a major public policy initiative where the countries can work together. He also said that Canada should focus on its core competencies in engaging with India and leverage its expertise to continue to push for stronger nuclear ties with India. All Liberal Party representatives agreed that while Canada was committed to its Human Rights values, it should not allow for pandering by parties to supporting old world conflicts for local electoral purposes.
Summarizing the discussions, Aditya Jha, National Convenor, CIF, complimented the Liberal Party participants for their recognition of the role of seriously engaging the Indian Diaspora in shaping national policies, for clearly stating their resolve to not allow old Indian conflicts to be used for electoral purposes and for expressing their party’s support for CIF’s initiatives such as India Public Policy Centre at University of Waterloo for creating intellectual bandwidth on Canada India corridor. He expressed the hope that CIF’s non-partisan dialogue with the Liberal Party would continue in a similar vein following the elections.
For more information about the event and Canada India Foundation, please write to Kalyan Sundaram at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call (416) 779-5237.
